British Psycho … Heeeeere’s Baley!
Say what you like about Christian Bale, but you can’t argue with his commitment to a role. I haven’t seen shoulder muscles like that since Bruce Lee swinging his nunchaku about in Enter the Dragon. In fact, Christian Bale is a living lesson in “body” horror.
Body Horror, Biological Horror, or Organic Horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. [link]
For American Psycho (2000) Bale spent many months working out on his own, then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, to achieve a physique suitable for the narcissistic 1980s Bateman.
It has been reported, in a quote from director Mary Harron, that Bale based aspects of the character on Tom Cruise: “[Bale] had been watching Tom Cruise on David Letterman, and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy.”
Roger Ebert wrote that “Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor.”
Then he went down to this for The Machinist (2004):
Starving himself for over four months prior to filming. The ideal body weight for someone of Bale’s height (6ft) is about 76kg (BMI tabled weight).
According to the DVD commentary, his diet was a cup of coffee and an apple, or a can of tuna, per day (about 275 calories). He lost 28kg, reducing his body weight to 55kg, or 8 st 9lb. Presumably he had his daily quota of water, and was monitored by health professionals, but who knows? And what kind of insurance contract was involved? Bale’s intention was to reach 45kg, but at this point, the film-makers stepped in and stopped the madness.
In his own words:
“I feel that it was [worth it] as long as I don’t ever find out that there’s ever been any permanent damage because of it. I’d really, really kick myself for that because at that point it’d just become stupidity […] But I feel fine.
“I wanted to see if I could set myself a challenge and achieve it and have the mental discipline not to waver from it.
”[…] I didn’t feel terrible to be honest. I felt quite fine once I got beyond the pangs of hunger, etc. Your stomach shrinks and you get used to it. And interestingly, I did find that mentally it was very, very calming being that skinny, because you really didn’t have any energy for expending on unnecessary things, so you just kept it simple. Life became very simple.
“Much like when you are ill, you just do what is essential and that’s it. But I actually never felt sick really. That really happened actually in putting the weight back on. I was a little bit too eager to eat afterwards and I rushed that. That wasn’t wise.”
It’s not surprising he was ill afterwards. He states that he became obsessed with apples right after filming:
“It was apples that I really wanted. I dreamed about them. Any kind. There were all sorts of different apples that they had in Spain and I was really into them and interested in finding out about all the different kinds of apples. And then different crew members would bring me different apples to try. And I’ve never liked apples particularly in my life, but it must have been I guess the vitamin A I believe that’s in apples that my body was craving.”
He later regained the weight, adding 18kg by weightlifting and EATING, in preparation for Batman Begins. He reached nearly 100kg (almost doubling his Machinist weight) but when shooting began, Bale discovered he had gained more weight than desired, and had to drop to about 86kg.
Remember all through this that the body and mind are interconnected and inseparable. Put one through the mill and the other will suffer. I’m a fan of Bale’s - out of admiration of his performances and sheer morbid curiosity - and this article has deliberately stayed away from the Terminator set fiasco because, if you know all that is outlined above about the actor, far from being surprised that he acted like that, you should expect Christian Bale to be pushing the membrane of sanity all of the time.
He really does not give a fuck about anything apart from the movie-making process, and is willing to torture himself, in mind and body, for it. So Do. Not. Fuck. With. Him.
And for an attitude like that, FYH can only salute you. Christian Bale, you are fucking insane. But we wouldn’t have you any other way.
- Jimboeth
• Christian Bale’s film The Fighter, about the early years of American welterweight boxer Micky ‘Irish’ Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his - wait-for-it - crack addicted (more crash-dieting!) half-brother Dickie Ecklund (Bale) is currently in post-production, slated for a 2010 release in the US. No UK date yet.
• Watch the trailer for: The Machinist / American Psycho
• See the poster for: The Machinist / American Psycho
• Buy The Machinist on DVD
• Buy American Psycho on DVD
(GIF thanks to lovegifs, brought to our attention by scarygirl)
